Pastry chefs are a different breed of culinary professional. They are meticulous, mathematical and organized. They need to calculate, measure and rely on formulas, as opposed to the savory chefs, who can more or less toss ingredients together. Pastry chefs are also lone wolves. They leave the kitchen after everyone else and are generally tucked away in a corner. How many times do you go into a restaurant and hear anything about the pastry chef, if they have one? Especially in Silicon Valley, desserts almost seem to be an afterthought. But as a fellow pastry chef, I would like to shine a light on one of South Bay’s standouts: Adrienne Garcia of Marché.

I walked in to speak to Garcia and out from behind a blue curtain came a small young woman who, despite her professional demeanor and firm handshake, looked like she could have been my best friend in high school. After graduating from UC-Berkeley, Garcia had to decide what she wanted to do with her life. Since she is the daughter of two attorneys, it was almost expected that she would go on to law school. After debating whether she should, with her parents’ support she decided to do something that would make her happy and attended the Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris. She was on her way to becoming a pastry chef. After a stint at Manresa in Los Gatos, she went back and forth from the savory side to the pastry side, eventually arrived at Menlo Park’s Marché. Along with executive chef Guillaume Bienaime, she has created highly seasonal menus that play with flavors and familiar concepts and presents them in new ways with delicious results.
Garcia’s style borders on the savory. Black pepper and cardamom are her favorite spices, and while many of her desserts have surprising elements of temperature, texture and taste, they are also very humble, nostalgic and fun. Her chocolate gateau has peanut butter ice cream, a crispy and dense chocolate cake, chocolate cream and deep-fried peanuts. When she was creating the dessert, she asked herself what would someone want with peanut butter and chocolate? The answer was milk. So to complete the dish, she added a gel made of milk; it balances the deep chocolate and savory peanut flavors.  

Pastry chefs are a different breed of culinary professional. They are meticulous, mathematical and organized. They need to calculate, measure and rely on formulas, as opposed to the savory chefs, who can more or less toss ingredients together. Pastry chefs are also lone wolves. They leave the kitchen after everyone else and are generally tucked away in a corner. How many times do you go into a restaurant and hear anything about the pastry chef, if they have one? Especially in Silicon Valley, desserts almost seem to be an afterthought. But as a fellow pastry chef, I would like to shine a light on one of South Bay’s standouts: Adrienne Garcia of Marché.

I walked in to speak to Garcia and out from behind a blue curtain came a small young woman who, despite her professional demeanor and firm handshake, looked like she could have been my best friend in high school. After graduating from UC-Berkeley, Garcia had to decide what she wanted to do with her life. Since she is the daughter of two attorneys, it was almost expected that she would go on to law school. After debating whether she should, with her parents’ support she decided to do something that would make her happy and attended the Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris. She was on her way to becoming a pastry chef. After a stint at Manresa in Los Gatos, she went back and forth from the savory side to the pastry side, eventually arrived at Menlo Park’s Marché. Along with executive chef Guillaume Bienaime, she has created highly seasonal menus that play with flavors and familiar concepts and presents them in new ways with delicious results.

Garcia’s style borders on the savory. Black pepper and cardamom are her favorite spices, and while many of her desserts have surprising elements of temperature, texture and taste, they are also very humble, nostalgic and fun. Her chocolate gateau has peanut butter ice cream, a crispy and dense chocolate cake, chocolate cream and deep-fried peanuts. When she was creating the dessert, she asked herself what would someone want with peanut butter and chocolate? The answer was milk. So to complete the dish, she added a gel made of milk; it balances the deep chocolate and savory peanut flavors.  

Garcia’s day at Marche begins about 8am, her favorite time. The kitchen is empty—just her, a prep list and a cup of coffee. She has a small staff and a tiny corner of the kitchen. Even though it’s small, everything has its place and is completely visible to the guests at the chef’s table. Watching her plate desserts, one sees that she is calm and focused, squeezing a bottle of chocolate sauce with her head down, but also answering a fellow cook’s question and laughing. It is obvious that she truly enjoys what she is doing.

One dish that represents her style is the plum vacherin. Buttermilk ice cream, plums and peaches in various forms are layered on a macaroon base. It is cold, light, sweet and tart. When I asked what her philosophy on pastry is, she answered, “I try to respect the product and make the best desserts I can while having fun, and hopefully that comes out in the food.”

As the dish was set in front of me, the colors were so vibrant that I had to pause for minute just to admire its beauty. The concept of eating with your eyes first made this delicious dessert a real treat. The life of a pastry chef is the life of little glory, always in the background, experimenting, calculating and creating the sweet ending of a meal. Garcia does it all quite well.